


Woohyun does Woollim

by cenji



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, M/M, the cheerleading fic, with less cheerleading than you'd think…
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-22
Updated: 2017-12-22
Packaged: 2019-02-15 13:08:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13031787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cenji/pseuds/cenji





	Woohyun does Woollim

**Author's Note:**

  * For [floatingcanvas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingcanvas/gifts).



I  
Nam Woohyun.

Sometimes when Woohyun closes his eyes, he sees his younger self sitting at the cluster of desks in his sixth grade classroom. He can clearly see himself, cheek resting in his palm, free hand blindly digging into a bag of jellybeans. He can remember the things that Mini-Woohyun pondered, the questions that fascinated him. These included:

  * \- When will I kiss a girl and will she be pretty?
  * \- Will I be popular in high school?
  * \- Should I study chemical engineering or robotics?
  * \- Will I be the captain of the football team or just its star player?



With the benefit of hindsight and the accumulated wisdom of his 16 years of life, the answer to most of his younger self's questions has turned out to be 'Lol'. 

"Woohyun-ah, pay attention to this bit. I want us to put it in the next routine. If we can all learn it in time."

Woohyun opens his eyes. On the mats, Jang Dongwoo is teaching Kim Sunggyu a flip. Dongwoo's the only person in the world who could teach Sunggyu to flip. The combined force of Dongwoo's radiant optimism coupled with his sheer endless energy gets the other third year not just to try, but to continue trying. Sunggyu even barely snaps at anyone in the process. It's truly miraculous. In fact, it looks like Sunggyu might nail the flip already, but at the last moment he flubs the landing, ending up face-first on the crash-mat. Dongwoo hops over and pats his bum. 

"OK, Gyu-hyung?"

Sunggyu grunts and waves an OK sign over his head. He lets his arm flop back to the mat with a slap. 

"Great! So we should practise, yeah, guys?"

Sunlight is streaming through the gym's high windows directly on to Woohyun. The main thing he wants to do is curl up right exactly here and pretend to be a cat for a bit. Of course, what he does instead is join the other members of cheersquad gathering around for Dongwoo's instruction. Woohyun hurries to help haul Sunggyu to his feet. Sunggyu is thankful enough that he lets Woohyun lean his weight on his shoulder for the length of time they're standing there watching Dongwoo demonstrate with each of the kids in turn. He doesn't flick Woohyun in the forehead or anything, so that's awesome. 

Come the end of the session, Sungjong and Sungyeol have succeeded. It's only that their technique needs a lot of polishing. Myungsoo's nowhere near success. Nonetheless, knowing him, he'll go practise on his own all weekend and come back able to copy Dongwoo. Sunggyu hasn't succeeded, but he's getting closer. Woohyun's succeeded once. When he tries to repeat the feat, he lands half on the crash-mat, stupid shrivelled chilli pepper legs waving in the air. Sunggyu laughs at him, helps him up, then laughs in his face. 

When he's leaving, the Sun has already set. The evening's warm though, so Woohyun leaves his team jacket unzipped. He walks with his fists in his pockets, which makes them jut out awkwardly in front of him. He's in that kind of mood though. As soon as Myungsoo leaves him, he's going to put his headphones on and listen to Nell. He's going to meander home, listening to Nell, looking at the sky as if he can see anything there, and thinking about things. 

Myungsoo's the only one he's left with. Sungjong quickly wandered away, on the phone to one of his friends from the girls school. Woohyun has no idea where Sungyeol went, but he disappeared in a flash too. Sunggyu and Dongwoo bolted through a shower in order to run off to their cram school. The third years will leave soon. In a semester and a bit, Woohyun does not remind himself. Lately he's thinking about this more than he means to think about it, and when he does, he thinks that he ought to do something. Say something. Somehow express that he will miss them dreadfully and they're two of his best friends. Woohyun does not do this. 

"It's just you and me," he points out. 

"Yep," Myungsoo agrees with a guileless smile. They don't share the same mood, Woohyun notes with a lack of surprise. Myungsoo never worries... That's not true. He worries plenty. But it feels true, because whenever Woohyun's melting down over something, Myungsoo is serene as a still pool under clear moonlight. Not that Woohyun's melting down. Not over the new routine or anything. Not yet. He can just sort of picture it.

"Poster's up!" Myungsoo gasps, clasping his hands together in excitement. "Finally! Look, Hyung. It's up."

The poster is indeed up. Stuck to the front entrance of the school, advertising ticket sales for the annual match between their school and their 'rivals' from across town. It's in full colour with lots of snaps of the football team in action. Right in the centre is Captain Weonjun. Handsome Captain Weonjun and his handsome grin. Even his sweat is handsome. Ugh. 

"Don't worry, Hyung," Myungsoo puts his hand on Woohyun's shoulder, encouraging, "You'll get that flip perfect. We both will."

"Fighting Team Infinite," Woohyun replies with a fist pump - because that's the sort of response Myungsoo likes. As expected, Myungsoo's smile stretches wide and he returns Woohyun's fist pump with twice as much force. He's still happy when he bids Woohyun 'goodbye' a minute later, hurrying off to catch his bus. Woohyun puts his headphones on and listens to Nell. He hopes Myungsoo's right. Myungsoo's usually right, so it's a good bet. Anyway, Woohyun really doesn't want to fall flat on his face in front of Captain Weonjun and his handsome sweat. 

 

After breakfast on Saturday, Woohyun returns to his room, pulls the blind back down, and does a Sweet Shit Tonne of homework. Well, he gets most of the easy stuff out of the way. Because he feels accomplished, he winds the blind back up and tells his dad he's going to get lunch with Dongwoon then go to the library. He does both of those things, but first he gets a bus to the suburbs to see his grandma. 

Her flat's on the fourth floor of a six storey building and Woohyun suspects his parents don't realise that she never leaves it on her own anymore. He suspects they don't want to realise. Her home helper had gotten a round of laundry on and it was now hanging throughout her balcony and living room, already bone dry. Woohyun helps his grandma fold it, sifts through her mail to sort the important things from the junk, shifts furniture back and forth to properly sweep the floors, throws out some moldy food from her fridge, replaces the batteries in her bedside clock, and selects her prettiest summer jacket from the heap in her wardrobe. 

She takes his arm and they descend in the lift to step out for lunch. His grandma says her elder son, Woohyun's uncle, brought her out for supper just the other day and happily tells him about the dumplings they had and the fine Japanese tea. She's related exactly the same story every weekend for at least a month, so it may or may not be true this time. In any case, Woohyun gives her the same reply as well. That sounds lovely, Uncle Woohyuk has good sense, he hopes she likes the cafe they're going to today. She hasn't used Woohyun's name, but she might use it later. Some days it takes her a while to be sure. 

On the way to the cafe, they pass by a park with a playground. The afternoon's balmy. The playground is packed with little kids screaming and laughing and running around. By the time they reach the cafe, she's got a headache and is walking with her eyes screwed shut against the outside world, relying on Woohyun to guide her. Even though she still hasn't said his name. The headache might be because of the kids or it might be because of the sunshine. It might just be a thing that happened because sometimes things just happen. 

Dongwoon spots them coming in and can obviously see she's having a not-good spell. He greets them as warmly as ever and lets Woohyun help her to a table. He puts extra egg salad in her sandwich, extra milk in her tea, and slips both of them a free cookie. Dongwoon's really nice. Woohyun thinks it's a bit unfair that his grandma can't remember Dongwoon with how nice he is to her every week. But sometimes things just happen. Or fail to. Her headache doesn't lift for a long time, so they pass most of their lunch in silence. She's a bit better when Woohyun is walking her home and smiles and thanks him when he's hung her jacket back in the wardrobe and is bidding her good afternoon. She still hasn't used his name, but Woohyun supposes he oughtn't to be selfish. 

The late afternoon sunlight is still bright. It hurts his eyes the moment he emerges from the cool, dim hall of her old block of flats. He shields his eyes and marches, half-blind, to the bus stop. Luckily, the bus is already waiting when he gets there, so he doesn't have to hang around thinking about things. He's not in the mood for that anymore. Besides, he didn't pack his headphones. 

Woohyun rides the bus to two stops before the library. The broad main road he lands on is busy as ever. It's lined with banks, cafes that are about ten times fancier than the one Dongwoon works in, and businesses that Woohyun doesn't know what they do but they're called things like 'Smith Jones Smith Associates' and smell of computer screens and drudgery. Woohyun turns up a side road, then a couple more. There's an old street market here. Most of the stalls close up around lunch time. Woohyun picks his way around discarded snack wrappers, crushed fruit, the metal shells of clothing stalls and two lonely stalls selling tornado potatoes and candied fruits respectively to the almost non-existent passers-by. Half-way down the street is the even lonelier spot where the entire ground floor of a building has been gouged out and replaced with gachapon and claw machines. Sunggyu greets Woohyun from behind his hot pink excuse for a desk. Sunggyu's got his friend with the piercings and the lazy eye with him, so Woohyun just waves back and doesn't stop to chat. 

(If he were forced - if he were absolutely compelled to, Woohyun might confess that this is one of those occasions he could spend more time with one of cheersquad's third years. More time with Sunggyu. Let him know just how much the rest of cheersquad - and, in fact, to hell with this, how much Woohyun will miss them. Miss him. At least, he could just use the opportunity to talk to him more, make some memories that are nothing to do with cheer routines and training. But that is, again, not what Woohyun does. Sometimes, like today, it's because Sunggyu's friends are there to hang out. Like Lazy-eye Girl, or Yong Junhyung, or that boy who looks like Sunggyu's fox brother except evil. Mostly, it's because Woohyun just doesn't. Maybe he has things to do. He _is_ a very busy man... He's a slightly busy man).

Sunggyu's job doesn't involve much. He has to be there to discourage anyone from trying to bust open the machines. If anything breaks down, he has to ring the repair company to send a guy over. That's about it. So of course his friends often stop by to chat. Woohyun's pretty sure most of them never touch the machines. If they do, it's to spend a few coins then move on. Like any normal person. Woohyun doesn't play like a normal person. Woohyun plays like a man with a mission. Which is what he is. He has a mission. It's to catch the mochi-peach-thingy. 

It started way back in March, just after term started. Sunggyu messaged him that he'd got a job. Woohyun happened to be out with Sungyeol that afternoon. They were at the electronics market and, gosh, was Woohyun glad of a good excuse to leave. They strolled down, talked Sunggyu into buying them pancakes, and played the claw machines for a bit. Sungyeol soon walked away with a giant grinning monkey with blue fur and black teeth. He called it Steve. Woohyun figured he shouldn't be so ambitious. He spotted mochi-peach-thingy - just a bit bigger than his fist, it could fit in the lap of his one remaining teddy bear. Woohyun decided he wanted it. 

Woohyun couldn't get it. He fed coin after coin into the machine. The claw would grab it, then fumble it. Every time. Another coin. Another loss. But everyone succeeds eventually. Another coin. Didn't even lift the toy once that time. Another coin. Eventually Sungyeol jabbed Woohyun in the small of the back and reminded him that they'd better get home. 

Woohyun came back the next weekend. Then he'd run out of money for the month and had to leave off for a fortnight. When he came back, Sunggyu whined that Woohyun was only there for a stupid toy and didn't love him at all. But he bought them both ice-creams and made Woohyun stop before his wallet was completely bereft. They ate the ice-creams behind Sunggyu's hot pink desk, even though a spitting rain was blowing in on one of the last wintry, bitter winds that year. 

He thinks about that day and drops mochi-peach-thingy again. Another coin and he forgets. Woohyun has an idea that he shouldn't fulfil his mission. He has an idea something bad will happen if he does. His grandma has an idea something bad will happen if she opens the front door on her own. Another coin. He doesn't tell Sunggyu about his grandma. He doesn't tell anyone about her. But Dongwoon knows, obviously. And Dongwoon goes to the same music academy as Sunggyu and Sunggyu's friends. So it's possible everyone knows. Maybe they do. Maybe they all know. Another coin. 

Sunggyu slaps him in the head with a giant bag of corn snacks. Woohyun peers at mochi-peach-thingy lying on the backs of his brethren once more. Mochi-peach-thingy looks happy. 

"Did you practise the flip?" Sunggyu asks while stuffing a handful of yellow puffs into his mouth. The stench of artificial sweeteners bursts in the air. Woohyun sticks his hand out and Sunggyu pours a bunch out for him. 

"No," Woohyun admits, biting delicately into a single puff - just to be contrary. 

"I'm better than you. I was at it all morning," Sunggyu sighs ostentatiously, as if the exhaustion is still catching up to him. Woohyun asks him if he's nailed it yet. Sunggyu's shoulders go up. He hasn't. Woohyun laughs. 

"Then I'm still better than you. At least I've gotten it right once."

Sunggyu gripes, "Yeah. Once."

He orders Woohyun to practise with him on Sunday and Woohyun pretends to consider the matter until Sunggyu promises to buy him coffee. (Woohyun is aware of the thin-ness of his wallet in his back pocket and how sometimes he'd starve if not for Sunggyu. Sunggyu might be kind of aware of that bit too. But, so long as neither of them mentions it, Woohyun can continue to pretend to have pride). 

 

II  
Kim Sunggyu.

There are currently six members on the cheersquad at Woollim Boys School and they can be divided into 'Chose to Join' and 'Joined Because Dumb'. Dongwoo and Sungjong both love dance, but the school had no dance team for them to join. Myungsoo can't dance, struggles manfully over the acrobatic moves, yet supposedly he joined of his own free will. Woohyun doesn't get it, honestly, but Myungsoo claims to have his own reasons, so that's that. (Sunggyu once whispered that he was 99% sure Myungsoo joined to impress someone. That left Woohyun even more confused, because who on earth is impressed by a male cheerleader who regularly trips over air?). 

Then there's Sungyeol. He tried to get out of joining a sports club by telling the faculty he was an accomplished shot putter and would use the time for self-study. When his lie was found out - gangly, 14-year-old Sungyeol hadn't actually been clear what shot put was - he was made to join cheersquad to make up the numbers. Sunggyu had lost a bet and was too prideful to back out. After two and some years, Woohyun was fairly certain this counted as Sunggyu wanting to be on the team and caring about the members. Saying as much to Sunggyu would get him a scoff and a bare-faced denial. Possibly a punch on the arm to boot. 

Lastly, there was Woohyun. He'd had a cast on his ankle the week of football team try-outs. He'd gone and asked the captain if he could try out on Friday. He was getting the cast off on Thursday, and he'd come straight there on Friday morning if that was OK. He was on the team all through elementary and middle school, so it ought to be fine. Won't it be fine?

It wasn't fine. By Friday morning, all the spots were full and the captain - who seemed not to remember Woohyun - acted like he was slow in the head for thinking they wouldn't be. Woohyun never found out if he really hadn't remembered him, or if he'd been messing around all along and never had any intention of letting Woohyun try out. That guy had already graduated. There was no point thinking about it now. But Woohyun did think about it the odd time. Just sometimes. Like when Lee Howon's pointing and laughing at him for accidentally whacking his elbow on the clothes line yet again. Lee Howon made it to football try-outs that Monday. Lucky bugger. 

"Why are you here, Howon-ah?" Sunggyu growls, face scarlet from exertion and embarrassment in a horrid combo. 

"I want to hang out with my dear friend," Howon responds, glancing back up from his phone. He's been sitting on the back step in the tiny enclosed garden since minutes after Sunggyu and Woohyun arrived together. He says he's doing physics quizzes on his phone. Little sunlight finds its way here to nourish the miserable grass and Sunggyu's mum's bonsais, so it's quite cold to just be sitting down. Also, Howon's built of muscle, Sunggyu has legs for days, Woohyun's not exactly a weed, and the garden really isn't big. So it feels cramped on top of everything. 

"Bullshit," Sunggyu pronounces, "Come on. You didn't come over just to mock and be an ass. Why are you here?"

Howon puts his phone away and grimaces. He shakes his legs out a little and he positively looks sort of chastised. Woohyun wonders for a wild moment if he should try that method of handling friends like Howon. Yelling at your friends and somehow being more respected for it, that's kind of a Sunggyu special, though. Noticing that his elbow has stopped smarting (and that not a single person is offering him sympathy), Woohyun quits rubbing it. While he waits for Sunggyu to get back to him, he stretches lightly. 

"OK fine. You said your 'friend' was going to be here." Despite not looking, Woohyun can perfectly hear how Howon's eyebrows went up on 'friend'. What's that supposed to mean? "You keep promising you'll introduce me."

"What...? What the hell, Howon? You know Woohyun. He's in half your classes. What the hell are you on about?"

Woohyun's arms have dropped to his side. He peers over his shoulder and watches the contortions of Howon's face. 

"Oh," he says "Oh, you meant him!" Here Howon sighs like he's been hard done by - which Woohyun feels is remarkably unwarranted. "I thought you meant Yoon Bora. Geez, if you'd meant 'boyfriend' you should have just said 'boyfriend' and I would have given you guys space. Gosh."

With that, he marches back inside. Blurry through the frosted glass of the back door, Woohyun can see him shuffling from outdoors slippers into house slippers. 

"Will I start the music again? I think I should," Sunggyu blabs, voice strained. They start practising hard again. Eventually, Woohyun's so tired that he's able to push Howon's 'boyfriend' comment far to the back of his mind, muddled with so many other things that live there. 

 

They finish when it's too dark to see properly and Sunggyu's mum has twice told him to get inside and eat his dinner or it's going to the fish. The colourful fish swimming about in the tank in Sunggyu's dad's office are all minute. Woohyun doubts they'd be overly entertained by rice with fried eggs. The interesting thing is that she delivers the threat in exactly the same tone of voice Sunggyu uses when he tells the kids he'll make them practise somersaults on the roof if they don't calm the fuck down. That threat's somewhat doubtful too, but it still makes everyone concentrate harder. 

Because it's late, Sunggyu doesn't buy him that coffee, but promises to make it up to him later. Woohyun isn't sure what 'later' means. For the next four days, Sunggyu's always somewhere else at lunch. He's too focused to be thinking about such fripperies during practice. Like most third years, as soon as he's free, he's legging it to cram school. All this means that it isn't until Friday lunchtime that Woohyun gets any reassurance that Sunggyu recalls the important matter of him owing his dear dongsaeng a coffee. 

Sunggyu appears at the door of Woohyun's classroom. Woohyun doesn't notice at first. He's too busy sneak-reading Kibum's manhwa. (Kibum chose to lean against Woohyun's side while reading, all but snuggling into his friend's arms - despite the fact that the afternoon was humid as all hell and he really had no excuse for such behaviour. So frankly, Woohyun didn't see that he had anything to do with himself other than peek over the top of Kibum's head to read his comic book). Junhyung calls, 

"Gyu-hyung, come inside!"

and Woohyun finally takes note of his presence. Sunggyu does come in - steps a little clumsy and fingers tugging at his striped school tie in a way that he only does when he both wants to look cool and feels supremely uncool. Without so much as a glance at Woohyun, he goes over to chat with Junhyung and his other friends. Woohyun does not feel disappointed. Of course he doesn't. With cheersquad having daily practice sessions, he and Sunggyu see more than enough of each other already, so why should he feel disappointed? He misses a couple of pages in Kibum's manhwa for peeking over and wondering what his hyung's gabbing to those guys about. Woohyun does rightfully feel just the slightest bit of disappointment at that.

The boys in Kibum's manhwa are playing baduk - and Woohyun isn't sure why but he feels like there's something very not-heterosexual about the match they're embroiled in. That might be the weirdest thought he's had all week, so he reckons he must be projecting. Projecting what exactly, he's not exactly sure, but there's obviously something. This train of thought makes him uncomfortable.He wriggles in his seat, trying not to bother Kibum in the process. (Kibum pinches his knee, but is otherwise unconcerned). That creeping feeling, like a dozen pairs of eyes are on him, has come over him. He glances up just to assure his subconscious that the other students present definitely for real can't read his thoughts. 

Which proves to be a mistake. Eyes _are_ on him. Yong Junhyung and Lee Hongki and the dwarf with the dimples, and not Sunggyu's because Sunggyu's stuffing something into his satchel and taking an aeon to quit messing with the buckles. When he finally does look up, words on the cusp of tumbling off his tongue, Kibum cuts him off. 

"Do I have to move, Sunbae?"

Sunggyu blinks at him and weighs the matter up for a long moment, head tilting like a perplexed dog. 

"Yes."

Kibum wails. He turns to Jaejin, who's behind them copying notes for Civics. Without looking up, Jaejin tells him, 

"Touch me and die, Kibum-ah."

The boy wails some more. Sunggyu laughs. It not being directed at him, Woohyun feels free to take a breath and appreciate Sunggyu's laugh. Open mouthed and straight teeth, apple cheeks flushed pink and eyes pretty crescents, and as Woohyun's chest swells he feels terribly fond. He breathes out and becomes aware of himself smiling in response. 

"I'm messing with you, Kibum-ah. You're fine."

"Well thank god for that. Sunbae is cruel," Kibum snipes with little feeling. Although, in fact, he has lifted himself out of Woohyun's arms and merely flops over the desk to continue reading his comic. 

"Woohyun-ah, I owe you a coffee. You're free after, aren't you?"

Woohyun fidgets with the pens spilling out of his pencil case. He's unsure how to respond. Certainly, he's free, but,

"Don't you have cram school, Hyung?"

Sunggyu shakes his head. A tuft of hair goes stray and is now sticking out at a 90 degree angle above his ear. Woohyun sort of really wants to comb his fingers through Sunggyu's messy hair and smooth it down. But really, there's more gel in there than it appears and his hyung's hair probably isn't half so soft and fluffy as it looks. While Woohyun is dragging himself to this conclusion, he almost misses Sunggyu's explanation. He only had to go in to do a test, but he managed to get it completed ahead of time. 

"I'm just that good," he states with a modest sniff. 

"Yeah, sure you are, Hyung. Finishing a test doesn't mean you did well on it."

Sunggyu actually pouts at him. 

"Shut up. Come for coffee with me."

"Yeah, OK," Woohyun shrugs. 

Sunggyu grins, biting down on his bottom lip, eyes sparkling like galaxies. Before he heads off for wherever, he promises to see Woohyun later. Woohyun doesn't get what's with that. Isn't Sunggyu acting a bit weird over coffee? It's only coffee. On the other hand, the realisation jabs Woohyun in the gut that he just compared Kim Sunggyu's sesame seed eyes to galaxies. Woohyun supposes, comparatively speaking, analysing all the details, Sunggyu's hardly the weirdo here. 

"I can't believe you got a date. Why don't I have a date?" Kibum whines playfully. Woohyun snorts. He drapes an arm over Kibum's back where he's still sprawled over the desk. Kibum sort of rolls himself back into his best friend's embrace as if that were the most natural thing in the world. 

"How is that even a date? Go back to your manhwa, My Beom."

Kibum tilts his neck at an awful looking angle simply so he can look up at Woohyun and roll his eyes. 

"My Hyun, have I told you lately that you're dumb?"

Woohyun just laughs at that. He catches Yong Junhyung's eye and looks away before the other can get it into his head to say 'hi' or anything crazy like that. (Sunggyu says Junhyung's one of the most kind and funny dongsaengs in his crew. Even so, Woohyun always feels like there's an awkward atmosphere between him and the other boy. He can admit to himself that he's likely conjuring this awkwardness himself. Junhyung raps, has piercings, can b-boy, goes to poetry slams and is, essentially, the anti-Woohyun). Rather than dwell on the contemplative look crossing Junhyung's face, Woohyun concentrates on picking up the flow of Kibum's comic. The baduk player with sharp eyes and hair like a thatched roof just pulled some kind of power play. He gets a celebratory kiss from his cute girlfriend. If anything, Woohyun considers, the kiss seems like a power play too, and the whole thing only marginally less gay. Suddenly he feels horrible. He opts for weaving loose braids into Kibum's long straight hair as the safest option until lunch is over and he can drown his consciousness with nice, dry coursework again. 

 

The cafe they go to is a chain, but it's a chain that's a quarter of an hour's walk from school. For whatever reason Sunggyu picked here, Woohyun's glad he did, instead of just jumping into the noisy place right by their school. Sunggyu buys himself an americano and a sweet, creamy mess of a coffee for Woohyun. They sit in a far corner, feeling detached from the world despite the constant flow of customers and the speakers playing pop music. 

"When was the last time we did this? I don't even remember." Sunggyu's busily tying knots in the plastic wrapper from his straw. He's all excited. Woohyun guesses his classwork must have been tough this week - it's just an americano, after all. 

"Was it Myungsoo's birthday?" Woohyun mumbles, "Yeah, I remember! He wanted the expensive waffles from that one place, so Dongwoo-hyung treated him. You're right, that's a while back now, huh?"

Sunggyu's stopped tying knots. He picks up the specials menu and addresses his remarks to that. 

"Sure, but that was with everyone. When did we go somewhere just us? You coming to my work doesn't count - you just feed the claw machine and leave."

Woohyun scratches his cheek uneasily, doing his best to ignore that last remark and Sunggyu's low level nagging. He only hums in response because, in truth, he can remember. They were the only two left after practice. Sunggyu changed into regular clothes because he had somewhere to be. They hung around in a tea shop, sharing a giant lemon green tea and listening to songs on Sunggyu's phone. Woohyun remembers how pleased he was that Sunggyu's taste in music wasn't as hardcore as he liked to make out it was; how cute and pretty Sunggyu looked under the blazing lights in his ugly blue jeans, all frayed at the ankles, his fingers peeking out the sleeves of his black hoodie with the huge silver skull on the front, his messy hair poking out around the hood; how the tartness of the lemon stuck to Woohyun's lips and how the ice made Sunggyu's lips more red and shiny than they always were. But all that was months ago. If Sunggyu says he doesn't remember, then Woohyun supposes he'd better not remember either. 

They stay in the cafe for over an hour. They pull off that trick they're both good at of talking about everything under the Sun except what they're most worried about. This includes college - Sunggyu only has a little longer while he can pretend to be unaffected. It includes cheersquad and the upcoming football match - they can both do that one flip by now, but Sunggyu almost smashed his head open yet again today. Myungsoo's in a similar state, and Sunggyu's presumably dedicating a certain amount of fretting to the younger Kim, since Myungsoo's disinclined to fret about himself. It also includes classwork - Woohyun's doing OK by his own standards, but Sunggyu got a C on Maths recently and that's not the sort of thing he's allowed to do. Instead they chat about a band that just debuted, and a gagman that Woohyun's into lately, and embarrass themselves by laughing too loudly at clips on Woohyun's phone. 

When Woohyun's alone on the bus going home, his heart still feels light. The feeling carries him up and he grasps hold of it like the most precious star in his universe.

III  
Cheersquad.

Like usual, Woohyun goes to see his grandma on Saturday. When he gets there, she's watching TV. These days, she doesn't switch the television on very often so, while Woohyun's busy-ing himself pulling her kitchen and hall into some semblance of tidiness, he asks her about what she's watching. She rattles on all about the story - it's a historical drama, facts highly embellished. Woohyun guesses his grandma must happen to like this period of history, because she's talking so much. He realises after a little while, that she also likes the second lead. He's handsome - well, of course he is, he's an actor. His hair, worn long, has a natural looking wave that makes his fringe kink out cutely. He has a nice jaw, a high sculpted nose, and dark soft eyes. In terms of Handsome Actors, Woohyun would rate him 'only so-so'. But who is he to judge his grandma's taste in men? He and his dad would be lost only for her taste in men.

"Just like my Wontakkie," she mutters. 

"What's that, Grandma?" Woohyun asks, distracted, from the floor where he's sitting cross-legged, testing batteries. He'd only changed the one in her clock last weekend, but he's already found almost a dozen dead ones lying around that he'll need to collect up and find a recycling bin for. 

"Wontak-oppa. That man looks ever so much like my Wontakkie."

Woohyun's grandfather's name was Seungwoo. He looks up at her, confused. She's crying silently. He turns off the TV, finds her nice summer jacket, and they leave for lunch. 

That afternoon, Woohyun burns through his money at the claw machine faster than he means to and before Sunggyu can stop him. His wallet's empty. The only things in it are his travel card and his ID. That's all. It's two weeks into the month and he's already fucked himself up this much. He's aware that he's been gazing into the abyss of his wallet for a long time, forehead pressed to the warm glass where inside mochi-peach-thingy and all its buddies are mocking him. Some way behind him, Howon is talking to Sunggyu. He can overhear them. Howon's refusing to leave, despite Sunggyu being belligerent, and Woohyun sort of feels like he can't move until Howon does. 

("I can't believe you knew she was dating Gwangseok and didn't tell me."

"I can't believe you didn't know - he's your best friend, Howon-ah."

"Not anymore he's not. Now he wants to smash my face in with a brick."

"I really think you're safe. Bora wouldn't like it if her boyfriend killed you... She could let him maim you a bit, I guess...")

Eventually, Woohyun collects himself. He has places to be, he has to get going. He waves bye to Sunggyu and Howon and isn't crying or anything when he leaves that place, even though he still kind of really wants to. A hand catches his shoulder as he's passing the metal cage where, every morning, an old man sells novelty socks and hairbands. 

"Woohyun-ah, are you OK?" Rushing after him has made Sunggyu's face flushed. He flaps a hand in front of his face to cool down, making his huge t-shirt sort of billow and the scary sad-face on it kind of sort of look like it's winking at Woohyun. 

"I'm good," he shrugs. Sunggyu drops his hand to his side. He examines Woohyun's features for a moment and Woohyun blithely holds his gaze, chin tilted up. 

"You're not," Sunggyu concludes, the words shivering uncertainly between them. 

"I'm fine. It's whatever, nothing important." Woohyun shuts his mouth before his tongue can get any more loose than it already is. Sunggyu's doing that irritating thing of just staring at him again, like there are answers to be found in the contours of Woohyun's skin. Maybe there are, with the number of times he's caught Sunggyu looking at him for no particular reason. He's on the point of saying his goodbyes and fleeing, when Sunggyu stifles the platitudes in his throat. 

"Do you want a hug?"

Something in Woohyun's wide eyes clearly said 'yes', because although the anxiety in Sunggyu's nervous hands still hasn't fizzled away, he wraps his arms around Woohyun's shoulders and draws him in. Woohyun's own arms find Sunggyu's skinny narrow waist. He sucks a breath in through his nose and exhales slowly. Twice. Three times. 

"You know you can tell me anything, don't you?" Sunggyu mumbles into his hair. The older boy's slender fingers are tracing lines along the muscles in Woohyun's upper arms and shoulders. It's all Woohyun can do to hold on ungainly, Sunggyu's ugly sad-face t-shirt bunched in his fists. Sunggyu smells of Lynx and sweat and peppermint gum. 

"Yeah. I know, Hyung." Four times. He pulls away, ruffles his hair, and pretends like he's not embarrassed. "Did you leave Howon in charge? You should get back."

Sunggyu snorts, "Pfft, yeah, I'd better, See you Monday."

 

It hardly needs mentioning that the hug is something else that they don't talk about. Although, Sunggyu really is Exceptionally Good At Hugs, but that has to have been one of his best. Even better than when their team came second in the local cheerleading championships last year. When Woohyun closes his eyes, he can still feel the other boy in his arms, feel Sunggyu's arms, warm and tight around him. Woohyun decides that reaction is just what happens when a hug is kind of Exceptionally Good. 

Dongwoo gathers everyone in the gym that lunchtime and shoves the poster for the football match in their collective faces. 

"One week to go!" he announces, broad grin suggesting he's happy about the fact. Dongwoo's whole body is vibrating with energy. Sungjong may be more restrained, but he's already got his pom-poms in hand and looks ready to bust out his flawless pike jump right then and there. . Woohyun notices Sungyeol's impolitely large eyes set in steely determination, hands on his hips, a half smirk on his lips. Myungsoo, draped over his taller friend's shoulder, isn't yet roused enough to Korean properly (Sungyeol had had to wake him up from a kip to get him here). Even so, he's making all kinds of excited noises which seem to directly increase the rate of Dongwoo's vibrations and, frankly, this is all too much for Woohyun. Not wanting to admit to any of his friends or family that he has no money, he's simply gone with not eating all day. Also, on the bus this morning, he'd left his music on shuffle and it had the audacity to play Kiss 'Because I'ma Girl'. Woohyun's in no fit state for 'Because I'm a Girl'. Now, looking to his left, he sees Sunggyu with his hands buried in the pockets of his school slacks. He's glaring at the poster and handsome Captain Weonjun the same way he glares at them when they're about to go overboard teasing him. 

"Ugh," he says, and Woohyun feels a bit better in himself. 

Dongwoo wants them to just run through the routine for now. It goes well. Better than expected. The timing's still a bit wonky and some of them (Sunggyu and Myungsoo mostly) still move too clumsily here and there. But it _is_ good. Sungjong's and Dongwoo's jumps are phenomenal. Woohyun and Sungyeol's standing splits have become so much smoother than they were last semester. Sunggyu and Dongwoo lift Sungjong and Myungsoo up like it's nothing. They're at the climax and that one flip. Myungsoo falls. He was near perfect all last week, twisting in the air and landing with a natural air as if that was just how he rolled out of bed each morning. Why did something go wrong now? He's on his side on the mats. His right foot's at a bizarre angle. There's a silent moment, shock surrounding them and endorphines inside Myungsoo racing to quell the pain. A groan tears its way from his throat. Sungjong runs to turn off the music. Sunggyu and Sungyeol both dash off to fetch the first-aid kit from the store room. Dongwoo's already crouching by Myungsoo on the mats, carefully prodding his ankle to assess the damage. 

Woohyun plods over, Sungjong just behind him. They plop down on the mats together. Other than slight hisses or grunts to let Dongwoo know where it hurts, Myungsoo's being quite silent, a carefully stoic expression held on his face. Woohyun rubs his arm. Myungsoo reaches out blindly and catches Sungjong's hand. He squeezes so tight his knuckles turn white and Woohyun is proud of Sungjong for not making a sound except to tell Myungsoo to hang in there. . 

After a few minutes that feel much longer, Dongwoo is tucking his arms around Myungsoo's shoulders and behind his knees. He heaves himself to his feet, the taller boy curled against his chest. 

"Nurse's office," he declares, voice hardly strained despite the burden in his arms, "Guess that's it for today, Guys. Sorry," he adds, as if Myungsoo's feud with gravity were Dongwoo's own fault. 

As they're getting their stuff together, Woohyun's eyes land on the poster. Dongwoo bluetacked it to the wall as "motivation". Sweaty Captain Weonjun sneers out at him. Myungsoo's ankle looks fairly buggered, Woohyun thinks. They're going to have to change their formation, he thinks. _Oh lord_. He really is going to embarrass himself in front of handsome Captain Weonjun. Woohyun really wants cheersquad to perform well when the visiting team are here. He wants the fans and everyone to say they dd well Better than well - he wants them to be perfect, and get praised, and for that mass gathering of handsome boys to commend them and not say that they 'were alright except for that one short fucker who tore his shorts during a split and landed on his arse'. Or whatever. 

"Hey," an arm lands around his neck. He jumps just about through the roof. "You OK? You were spacing out," Sunggyu enquires, like he can't tell that Woohyun sort of forgot to breathe for a minute there. 

"Yeah, I'm good," he replies, all casual, looping an arm around Sunggyu's waist - because if Sunggyu-hyung's allowed, then so is he. "Poor Myung though."

Sunggyu's bottom lips sticks out and his forehead creases up like he needs to consider that statement deeply. 

"Swings and roundabouts, I guess," he mumbles. Woohyun stares at him waiting for explanation. He holds Sunggyu a hair's breadth closer because Sunggyu looks too distracted to notice or leave. And just because Sunggyu is really very comfortable. When no explanation is forthcoming and it's getting harder to claim that they're doing anything other than cuddling in the middle of the gym, 

"What does that mean?" he asks. Sunggyu chews his lip. It's bruised and bitten already. Woohyun wonders what his hyung's been worrying about now. Sungyeol interrupts before Sunggyu can come up with an answer, huffing as he drags a bulky mat across the floor, 

"It means that that's as close as Myung's ever been to Dongwoo-hyung. You just know he's telling himself the pain's worth it. Dumbass." Myungsoo's one of Sungyeol's best friends in the world, so he means 'dumbass' in the most caring way possible. What Woohyun doesn't exactly know is what he means by the first part. Woohyun doesn't get an opportunity to ask because Sungyeol's ordering them to come help him stack the mats away. Sunggyu disentangles himself first (and it's crazy how his heat will seem to linger on Woohyun's skin long after they've got everything cleared up and have left). Once everything's sorted and they're in their regular uniforms again, Sunggyu glances at his phone. 

"There's, like ten minutes. Have you eaten?"

"Huh? Yeah," Woohyun lies. When Sunggyu questions him, he claims he just ate a custard bread from the convenience store. Sunggyu frowns, eyebrows cavorting in disapproval.

"No good. Let me buy you something better"

"What," Woohyun gasps, "Is better than custard bread?"

Sunggyu's peering into his wallet and takes a while to respond. Presumably his wallet's less full than he'd thought, because he replies staunchly, 

"Giant custard bread."

Sungyeol and Sungjong catch a whiff of 'Eldest Hyung Buying Stuff'. They attach themselves to Sunggyu's left arm, where Woohyun's strolling along at his right, and demand snacks. Sungjong only wants soda because he's dieting. Sunggyu threatens to buy him chocolate and let Sungjong's imperfect will-power do the rest. Sungyeol demands meat. He's a man who believes in aiming for the stars. In the end, of course, sungjong gets his soda and they all share the same sugary, cardboard-like bread from the vending machine in the cafeteria. As the cavernous room's emptying out, they huddle around a table, convincing themselves that Myungsoo's injury surely isn't so bad. They all saw. Woohyun hadn't known his friends were this good at lying to each other. 

They manage to keep it up until about half an hour after the last bell. Myungsoo hobbles into the gym in regular clothes, on crutches, with a startling bulky cast on his injured leg. Sungjong's the first to shriek, 

"Oh my god, Hyung! Why are you here? Leave right now. Why are you like this?"

Myungsoo protests that it's not so bad as it looks. He promises he just came to tell them how he is and, no, he an't take part and he's so sorry, but it's really not so bad. None of them listen much. Sungjong's looking up about bone fractures and how to treat them. Sungyeol's grabbing best friend rights to be the first to sign his cast. After dragging a stool over for him, Dongwoo hugged Myungsoo and is running his hands all over the boy's arms and back to assure himself that he's not concealing any more injuries. Woohyun watches from the side beside Sunggyu - apparently they're the only two who've heard of the concept of giving a person space. He observes Myungsoo's familiar stoic expression. Underneath the glimmers of disappointment and guilt and all that, there's something else. Woohyun spots a flash of it, and it's something he can't un-see. 

"I'm glad it's nothing more serious. We're going to have to fighting like crazy to fill you're gap, Myungie-yah. But it's OK," Dongwoo rambles, grinning at 1000 Watts because his friend's OK. (Or because he's a masochist who genuinely does relish the challenge, who can say. Woohyun's certainly not one to pass comment). Myungsoo smiles up at him. Suddenly Woohyun is aware of the warmth between them, this undeniable heat and affection that makes Woohyun blush and look away. 

"Oh," he mumbles, gazing at his feet, "I get it now." No one hears him, thankfully, but for Sunggyu, who snorts ungracefully. Bumping his side, Woohyun peers up at the older boy, challenging him to utter a word. Sunggyu just cocks his head and breaks out in a pretty smile. (Woohyun wants to scold himself for thinking that. However, truthfully, Sunggyu's smiles in general tend towards prettiness. So can he really blame himself for stating facts? No. No, he can't). For the briefest of moments, their fingers entwine. It's fleeting. Woohyun's left unsure which one of them even initiated that. As well as when and how he might be able to have Sunggyu's hand in his again. It's just that Sunggyu's hands are nice, you see? Soft and slender, elegant and warm, and just sort of nice. 

Woohyun's glad when Sunggyu barks at them to get back to practice, and for Sungyeol to quit drawing monkeys on Myungsoo's leg ("It's a lemur, you heathen!" Sungyeol squawks, words garbled by the highlighter held between his lips), and for Sungjong to put his phone away before Sunggyu steals it and deletes all his contacts. It means Woohyun can shove those difficult lines of thought way way back where they belong. Bury them so deeply he can pretend they were never even real. That's what he wants to do. He doesn't quite succeed, though. When he finds himself with an armful of Kibum later that day, he's blown by a squall of confusion. Somehow pristine Kibum doesn't smell like his senses anticipate, and somehow Kibum's skinny form doesn't feel like Woohyun's arms expect. It's the strangest sensation. Woohyun does his best to shake it away. 

That whole week is a storm of constant practice sessions. Sweat and aching muscles, ice-packs, peeling off stinking knee supports at the end of the day and gritting his teeth against the pain. Woohyun throws himself into the routine with an energy he can rarely muster. With each day it gets easier not to think about anything else.

IV  
Grandma. 

Saturday arrives. As he's been so busy, Woohyun has reams of homework left, veritable forests of the stuff. He sits in his bedroom with the blinds down and mournful ballads playing quietly on his phone. All the books and notebooks he still needs are stacked up behind the Maths mock test he's half-finished. Logic tells him to stay and finish his homework, but he can't stand the thought of leaving his grandma alone when it's become a habit to go visit her. Whether she remembers him or not, he's convinced the act of going and being with her is important. Additionally, he's going to have to blag money off his dad. He shuts off his music and spends a long time contemplating exactly who he'll go about doing that. 

In the end, he plumps for making it sound like an out of the blue, once off idea to take his grandma out. His dad momentarily looks shamefaced. Handing Woohyun more money than necessary, he brushes it off, pretending to be invested in fixing the sink that's been leaking since Woohyun was in middle school. Woohyun's annoyed at his dad. Yet somehow he still feels bad for making him feel bad. It's a confusing feeling, one that's been dogging him regularly in recent months, ever since he had begun to realise how bad his grandma had gotten while his parents were still telling him she was fine. Besides this, Woohyun is also simply embarrassed for having to ask for money. He does his best to budget with his regular allowance - fixation on claw machine toys included. That he failed again is frustrating and shameful and makes him sort of want to hide under his bed. 

It'll be worth it, though - this whole shambles of thoughts and feelings and all. 

When he reaches her flat, she opens the door. Rather than looking shocked, she greets him - "Ah, it's you" - and shuffles back inside to watch the TV. A little later, she comes into the kitchen, saying, 

"I made some tea earlier. It's probably finished. But would Woohyun-ah like some fresh?"

Woohyun's eyes unhelpfully start to water at hearing his name from her mouth. Actually, he'd already found the teapot - almost full of stone cold tea - and a mug of cherry tea - equally cold, sitting on the shelf where, presumably, she'd set it down to concentrate on opening the kitchen door with her permanently shaky hands. He counts to three in his head and sets a smile. 

"Oh gosh, and I just put the kettle on to make some now. there's cherry here," he mentions, picking up the box and showing her the swirly, pink illustration on the front, "Does that sound good?"

"Yes. Yes, that'll be fine. Well, that's fine then. So you'll make us both some tea, will you?"

"Sure thing."

"Make a pot. It's better to have a pot"

"OK. No problem, Grandma."

"There's a nice cherry flavoured tea there by your elbow. It's very tasty. I recommend that one."

"Oh yes? Well, I'll make a pot of that then. That sounds good, right?"

"Yes. Yes, it's probably quite good."

He counts to five this time. He makes sure he's still smiling nicely, easily. 

"The TV's on, Grandma. Do you want to go back to your programme?"

"The TV? The TV! Oh yes." When she turns to leave, she appears more content than confused or distracted. Woohyun breathes a sigh of relief as he listens to the water begin to burble in the kettle. From the living room, he hears that name again, "My Wontakkie". While making their tea, he formulates a question in his head. He's not sure he should ask - he doesn't want her to cry again. But the mere fact that she would say it is so fascinating. 

In any case, his curiosity has already got him by the throat. When he's sitting on her woven rug in his lucky sushi socks, a stained, floral cup of tea cradled in his lap, he asks his question rather straightforwardly. She looks at him, and the television, and back to him. 

"He looks like Wontak-oppa. That's what I'm saying."

"Yes, but who is Wontak. You didn't have a brother called Wontak, did you? I remember Granduncle's name was Sangyeop."

"Yes! Sangyeop-oppa." She plucks her cup up from where it's resting on top of a pile of second-hand novels, puts it down again, picks it up again, and finally puts it down on the floor near her slippered feet. As she talks, Woohyun shimmies closer and places the cup back safely on the low table, hoping she doesn't notice. 

"Sangyeop-oppa loved horse-riding so much. He learnt while he was in Japan, but he could never pursue it over here. But all the books over on that shelf, they were all bought by him. Now they've ended up here, cluttering up my shelves. Encyclopaedic knowledge of horses, that's what he had. It was remarkable. But he never had the chance to pursue it. There was a day when he took us to see that one show up in... Oh, where was it? He drove us for hours to get there. It was summer and the horses' coats shone brilliantly, like nothing I'd ever imagined. But where was that silly place again?"

Woohyun gazes into his tea, swirling the dark purple liquid around the cup with its cracked glaze. He remembers. She told him enough times, back before plaque started eating away her mind. His granduncle wasn't married yet, and could get away with going on wild adventures once in a while. He drove all the way to Gangwon. Up in the hills around Sokcho, they circled around a huge lake reflecting the forests and the endless sky. He parked the car above a field where magnificent horses paraded on the perfectly kept grass. There was an old shrine at one end and some rich man's Western style country-home occupying the other. Granduncle, Grandma and a couple of their friends sat on the car, drinking sodas and looking down upon the beautiful animals and the people in their fancy get-up. It's a good memory. Woohyun feels petulant for bringing her back from it. Turning down the volume on the TV, where a sword fight's just broken out, he puts down his cup. He nervously squeezes his hands around his toes. 

"But, Grandma" he pipes up, "Just now you mentioned someone called Wontak. Who was that person?"

She wrings her hands as she observes him. That might just be the tremor bothering her. Even to say she's observing him is a stretch - she often seems to look but not see. Woohyun supposes she's still looking at a green field under a blue sky, and mares with gleaming coats and ribbons in their manes. It's probably nicer there. 

"Wontak? Wontakkie-oppa? Oh gosh, you're right! He was there that day, too." 

Woohyun gasps. His grandma's found her tea again and is sipping it serenely. It's cherry, she tells him, very tasty, she likes this one. He pushes her some more, but she's done talking about his granduncle and horses and maybe really doesn't remember much about an old friend called Wontak. 

"But who was he?" Woohyun mumbles, more to himself than anyone else. The sword fight's ended on screen. The lead actor's wounded. He's lying by a river, his head in the lap of the lead actress. Fireflies flitter around them aesthetically. Woohyun's reaching for the remote to put the volume back up.

"He was a boy I liked."

She's gazing into the middle distance. It strikes Woohyun right in his chest that he can't imagine what she's seeing. 

"A boy you liked?" he croaks. 

"Yes." Slowly, her head tilts back. Her eyes are half closed in concentration. The electric light in its dusty, cream-coloured shade holds no answers for her. "But then he went away. It was a shame. Quite a shame." Gradually, she lowers her head. The scene on the television catches her attention. Woohyun notices and knows that he should leave it at that. He should find something useful to do while she finishes this episode. There's always something useful he can find to do. But for some reason, as he frowns at the purple staining the inside of his cup, words spill from his lips. They're utterly unbidden. Woohyun thinks he could sort of feel them springing to life in his throat, but was powerless to stop them surging outwards. 

"I think I have a boy I like."

She looks at him, eyes cloudy and unfocused, yet, this time, he's sure she sees him. 

"That's good. Make sure he doesn't go away, won't you?"

Woohyun promises he'll try. (And he will. Although what that will mean in practice, he's not ready to think about it. A semester and a bit to go). He hurries off to take out her bins and mop the heck out of the kitchen floor before the episode ends and they leave for the cafe. 

"Will we go to the same place as before?" she asks, patting her jacket pockets for the keys to the car she had to scrap a year ago, "The one with that nice foreign-looking waiter?" A bubbly feeling invades his head. Woohyun's cheerful all the way there and right through lunch. 

From the wad of notes his dad handed him, Woohyun has a little left. After he's taken his grandma back home, he spends a while sitting on the swings near her block of flats. It's a warm late afternoon. Few people are out. Two women with prams. A granddad lugging plastic bags brimming with leeks. A pair of elementary school girls chatting casually on top of the monkey bars. From somewhere comes the sound of a beginner practising the same violin piece over and over. Woohyun's tatty trainers scuff the ground, and he thinks. He's thinking about what he actually, honestly wants. 

As it happens, he's not good at this. 

He wants to eat at school next week. But also, screw that, because he's highly skilled at wrangling free snacks out of his friends. (Whether that's through cuteness or being annoying - who cares so long as the results are the same). He really, horribly wants to change his money into coins and feed them all into the claw machine. As in, it's ridiculous and he's shivering at the thought and there's really no way for him to pretend this isn't some strange addiction at this stage. However, he absolutely does not want to see Sunggyu right now. He's never admitted, not even to himself, that he likes him. He's never admitted out-loud that he likes boys, not to Kibum or anyone. A little while, a little bit of peace is what he needs right now. That decision tempers the itching in his fingers long enough for him to make his way to the library and properly finish his homework. 

It keeps working right into the next morning. Woohyun's in town with Kibum and Jaejin. Jaejin had vouchers, so is treating them to diet bothering breakfasts. The knowledge that they're near the market and that Sunggyu won't be at work yet makes Woohyun's stomach clench around his omelette. Convincing them to go is easy. Thrift shop clothing, cheap snacks, bootleg idol merch - Woohyun knows how to sell these two an experience. The market is full of life when they get there. They amble through the crowds filling the narrow street. While Kibum's cajoling Jaejin into buying a pink panama hat, Woohyun splits off for the arcade. He makes his way along the rows of machines twice and once more to be sure. It's busier, as the market's still in full swing. There are a couple of groups of teenagers, a dad with three kids simultaneiously grabbing his leg and demanding money, a woman on her own resolutely swearing at the Moomin doll she wants. Even so, it's not exactly packed, so Woohyun's certain he didn't just miss it. It's not here. Someone caught mochi-peach-thingy. 

An emptiness settles in his stomach. He tries to fix it with tornado potatoes and soda, but gives up almost immediately. After a while, he kind of feels like he must accept it, embrace it. The emptiness is him and he is the emptiness. When he goes home, he slouches around in his favourite shorts while he dashes off the last of his homework and chats to his friends online. He tries not to think about the coming minute, let alone the coming week, let alone a semester and a bit. He'll live only in the moment and the ache in his gut. No exams looming. No big football match. No friend with a beautiful smile constantly dwelling in his brain. Nothing at all. 

Monday snidely presents itself to him. Two days till the match. Woohyun peels himself from his bed. He lumbers over to the window, yanks the blind part-way up and jerks open the window. A crow is sitting atop a streetlight nearby, cawing happily. A grandma is mooching along the pavement, under the jade green trees, yelling at someone on her smart phone. Woohyun breathes in the air of the new day and tells himself that this is neither the week he embarrasses cheersquad in front of the whole school nor the week he fucks everything up with one of his best friends.

V  
The Match. 

Despite Dongwoo's best efforts, they have no place to practise during lunch. Their school wants a cheerleading team to encourage the athletes in a brotherly sort of way, but the board has never been all that keen on funding them or ensuring they have somewhere to train. These days, thanks to Dongwoo's persistance - with some help from Sunggyu feeding him points to make - they usually have somewhere to work out that's more or less safe. Thanks to Sungjong and one of his friends from the girls school, they've got their ugly old uniforms looking a lot snazzier and more striking. They're the same old shorts and t-shirts, mostly inherited from graduated members, but with more flair and better fitted. At least they look more like a real team now, and less like some losers playing with pom-poms. 

But the Big Match is on the horizon, as well as a few other events. The faculty have migrated back to being unmoved by cheersquad's woes, no matter how many ways Dongwoo comes up with to beg. All this being the case, Woohyun's utilising this lunch time to doze in his classroom, arms crossed on his desk as a pillow. Behind him, Kibum and Junmyeon re-enact drama scenes and play with filters on their phones. He overhears a line from the show his grandma likes. _We're lonely when we're together, like a branch of winter_ , Junmyeon all but yells in an absurdly deep voice. He kind of sort of does sound like the actor all the same. For a moment, Woohyun's snatched back to his grandma's flat, overflowing with junk, where nothing is ever where it belongs and she sits rigidly on the armchair, hands shaking constantly while her brain is eaten away. Then Kibum cackles at the filter making Junmyeon's head explode. Woohyun quietly groans into the crook of his elbow. 

"'Sup. You alright?"

Woohyun peers up dubiously. Howon genuinely, verifiably is sitting beside him, headphones around his neck. backpack on his lap, as if he belongs there. 

"You're not here next class. What are you doing?" Kibum questions. It comes out like an interrogation, but they're not really trying to drive him away. They're a bit confused is all. 

"I'm benchwarming. So I convinced Coach to let me go study instead of training today."

Woohyun's never been good at withering stares. (Sungyeol says trying just makes him look constipated, and Sunggyu's not beyond jabbing Woohyun between the eyes until he quits). Fortunately, Kibum and Junmyeon more than have him covered. In seconds, Howon folds. It turns out he's still hiding from his best friend. Except, this time, Gwangseok's forgiven him for hitting on his girlfriend and has moved on to trying to hook Howon up. 

"I still don't understand why you're hiding... And here of all places," Junmyeon comments bluntly. They have nothing against this guy, but nor are they close to him. It's just sort of odd. 

"Come on. He'd never think I'd be here hanging out with you weirdos." Well, perhaps Woohyun will take back the 'nothing against Howon' part. "And I don't trust him. His description of her was strange. He's definitely still pissed. I'm thinking she doesn't exist and Gwangseok's setting me up for a prank. That or... Or! It's one of his noonas' friends. You guys don't know, but his noonas are fucking scary. Fucking. Scary... Like you when you're rampaging, but like, a lot more so," he explains, making wild gestures in Kibum's direction. Woohyun turns around in his seat to get a better look at his friend. He can see Kibum's expression morph from stunned, to affronted, to eventually decided that counts as a complement. A dangerous smirk tugs at the corner of Kibum's lips. 

This is how Woohyun spent the remainder of his lunch break badgering Howon into re-enacting 'You Who Came From the Stars' with Junmyeon and recording it all on his phone. He relates all this to Sunggyu later. (Sunggyu collared him to be stretching buddies before Woohyun had a chance to find someone else. It's alright though. Woohyun's partially sitting on Sunggyu's back. Sunggyu's head is down around his knees and his fingers are wriggling past his toes. From this angle, Woohyun doesn't have to see Sunggyu's eyes sparkling with the conviction of their inevitable triumph, not have his breath stolen by Sunggyu's smile. His smile seems to have become prettier since Friday. That obviously doesn't make sense and Woohyun slightly hates his heart for thinking it). The older boy guffaws, then grits out a moan. Woohyun slides off him, and Sunggyu manoeuvres on to his back to stretch out more gently. 

"Sorry, Hyung. You OK?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't make me laugh at times like that, Woohyun-ah," Sunggyu scolds, swatting Woohyun's leg. They catch each other's eye and share a grin. There's a flash in which the void inside Woohyun, that he had become so used to, feels filled up. It's a sensation like a warm brownie with ice-cream on a cold winter's day. This thing, it's startling and familiar all at once, and Woohyun wants to drown in this moment, to curl up with Sunggyu on the battered crash-mats and never ever let this exact second slip away. 

Sungyeol throws a pom-pom at his head. 

"Let's get it, losers! Time to do this."

 

The next day, they still don't have anywhere to go at lunch. However, fed up with the situation, Sunggyu leads them up to the roof. A place that they're one hundred percent not meant to be and that isn't even a little bit safe for practising the more aerodynamic moves. Woohyun never imagined Sunggyu was serious with this threats to make them train up here. Indeed, he'd always assumed only the bad kids even knew how to get up here. When Sunggyu pushes open the metal door and his team mates scatter past him, Woohyun straight away spots the huddle of Yong Junhyung, Dimples-dwarf, Lee Hongki, Sunggyu's evil fox brother, and a few others who Woohyun feels almost certain he's never laid eyes on before. They all greet Sunggyu warmly. Nonetheless, Woohyun can't help but be worried they'll make fun - and then practice will be ruined even on the off chance no one breaks anything or falls off the building.

His misgivings get chucked off the building. Sunggyu's bad kids - Woohyun can't help tagging them that way in his head - turn out to be a great hype squad. They whoop and holler at all the stunts. At one point, Sungyeol's pom-pom goes flying. In - what Woohyun considers - a highly unadvisable move, Hongki bounds over and manages to snag the thing just before it would have disappeared over the edge. All in all, it's not that Woohyun isn't still stupidly intimidated by this crowd, but he may be re-evaluating. If nothing else, they're a way better audience than the football team, half of whom are only interested in catcalling poor Sungjong. 

After school, Myungsoo is waiting for them in the gym. When Woohyun walks in, the two third years are already there. Myungsoo's sitting between them on the mats, his cast - now black with signatures and doodles - resting up on a pile of textbooks. 

"I looked all over, hyungs. No one knew where you'd all run off to," Myungsoo's telling them. It's close to a whine. He does look sad, Woohyun notes, but he also looks like he's playing it up a bit because he's enjoying how one hyung in particular is rocking him in a side-hug and the other is patting his knee. That kind of shit is the kind of shit Woohyun would pull. He approves, but he's still going to interrupt. 

"Hey!" he announces his presence. Sunggyu waves him over. Scurrying up to them, Woohyun drops down beside Sunggyu. An arm is looped around his shoulders almost before he's sat down. 

"Thank god," Sunggyu whispers in his ear while Dongwoo fusses over Myungsoo, telling him all about their lunch time training session, but also half-heartedly ordering him to go home and rest up right this instant. "I was starting to feel like a third wheel."

Woohyun leans in, choosing how to reply. The familiar smell of Sunggyu's gum and Sunggyu's cologne and Sunggyu's everything envelopes him. Woohyun feels giddy. 

"Hyung, are you only using me? I'm so sad. I thought you for real were happy to see me. You don't really like me at all, huh? I'm so so sad. I might cry. Hyung, you'll make me cry." When Sunggyu squeezes him closer, shaking him around in protest, Woohyun's miserable moue collapses into a grin and giggles burst forth from his chest. 

"Quiet! People will believe you one of these days," Sunggyu complains. 

"Good! It's all true! Ddunggyu's a horrible hyung, he made Woohyonie sad!" Woohyun flails his arms to illustrate his sincere distress. Sunggyu shakes him harder, making Woohyun burst into laughter all over again. 

"You two are cute."

They freeze. Sunggyu does a second after him, and Woohyun feels his arms stiffly move from where they're clutching Woohyun's upper-arms. He leaves one hanging around Woohyun's shoulders and the other drops limp at Sunggyu's side. With a glance, Woohyun can see the chrysanthemum pink blush colouring Sunggyu's face and rising up to his ears. Even without that, though, the awkwardness vibrates through him, Woohyun thinks, all up his back and down his arms and sinking into Woohyun's skin. 

Or maybe that's just Woohyun. He's awkward. Dongwoo's not. He's watching them with a half-smile, gaze warm and open and perfectly kind. Myungsoo's bad leg is swung across his lap. Myungsoo's hugging Dongwoo's arm loosely, fingers hanging on to the older boy's threadbare old t-shirt. His expression is tranquil and somehow incandescent, and Woohyun becomes aware that _he's_ blushing too, from his nape all up to the top of his head feeling inreasingly hot. He's sure Sunggyu must feel it. That's bad, Woohyun, that's dangerous. 

"Whatever. Should we start up without Sungyeollie and Jjong? Where are they anyway? It's weird when Sungjongie's late." 

Woohyun's grateful for Sunggyu's rambling. Dongwoo and Myungsoo move to fix the latter a nice seat so he can stick around during training like he wants. Woohyun hops over to the soundsystem to get their music ready. Sunggyu does nothing but 'supervise' from the mats, standing around with one hand on his hip, chin raised up as he continues to go on about everything they have to do that evening. He's still blabbing away when Sungyeol and Sungjong rock up a few minutes later. 

"How can you guys be late? Kids, the big day is tomorrow. It's tomorrow. Don't you know what-"

"Hyung is noisy," Woohyun cuts him off, puffing his cheeks out in hopes the cuteness will save him if Sunggyu's honestly annoyed. It works. Sunggyu only harrumphs and mutters how he's like this only because he cares. 

On Wednesday morning, they're allowed to cut a couple of classes and given a place to train. But, at some point, there's nothing more training can do. In a sense, Woohyun's glad when they have to join classes along with the rest of the students. He focuses so intently on taking notes in Geography that he almost forgets what's to come. He almost forgets everything, living only in the moment. 

As he goes to get ready before the match, he's still relaxed. There's just a low tremor in his lungs, a vibration under his skin. His heart rate increases slowly but steadily as he paces down the dim tunnel with his team mates, a quick thrum and their footsteps reverberating off the walls. Sunggyu's in front, then Dongwoo and Sungjong, Woohyun and Sungyeol behind. They step into sunlight on grass bright as emeralds, where the crowd roars like lions.

Woohyun remembers very little of what passes. It's a blur through the adrenaline. The crowd rising and falling; occasionally picking out individual faces; Myungsoo's near the front row with his leg up, beaming and doing all the arm movements to their routines; Sungyeol's little brother - a first year, like Sungjong - sitting together with his crew, all holding sparkling pink fans with Sungyeols face on them; Kibum and Jaejin sitting together, failing to pretend to be interested in the football; Catching Sunggyu's eye at the part where they both drop into a lunge for Sungjong to spring over them, and knowing the team were all OK; Catching Dongwoo for the cradle, the weight of his lean, muscular body and the slick of sweat, and the swooping feeling in Woohyun's head when Dongwoo spins twice in the air, landing perfectly; Sungjong - the damn showoff - adlib-ing hearts during his side somersault; How their positions aligned in his head before that damn flip and Woohyun knew for sure, before his toes had left the ground, that they'd land it, that they'd come together exactly as one. They finish with him on Sungyeol and Sunggyu's shoulders Sungjong on his - striking a pose for his lecherous fanboys - and Dongwoo down in front. The noise of the audience, the music from the speakers, they're all one, all part of the air, and Woohyun breathes them in to the bottom of his lungs, filling every space inside. 

 

VI  
Bring It On. 

Once the adrenaline fades and Woohyun reflects on the match itself - well, that's something of a damp squib. The players grind out an uninspiring 90 minutes with no goals. In injury time, their goalie manages to nudge the ball back into his own goal. Their rivals depart with the trophy and cheersquad courteously keep their post-game celebrations relatively quiet. 

Sunggyu and Dongwoo pooled their money to buy them all a strawberry roulade, because they do love their dongsaengs really and want them to enjoy the finest sugary delights in the world. That and the third years are as tired of pestering the kids about their diets as the kids are of hearing it. They go to the park to portion out messy slices of it onto napkins nicked from the school cafeteria. It's already dark, but it's warm enough, barely a breeze to stir the leaves on the trees. Various bird life ogle them from the duck pond in an unimpressed sort of way when Sungjong shrieks at his phone. 

"Hyungs! Dasommie got a great video. Come see."

They crowd around their youngest. Woohyun tucks his chin over Sungjong's bony shoulder, partially for comfort, but also because he knows it bugs Sungjong almost-but-not-quite enough for him to gripe at Woohyun. The video on Sungjong's friend's instagram does look good - she came prepared with tech, Woohyun presumes. They can hear her cheering them on. Woohyun's scorpion even gets a 'uwah~ oppa!'. Although, of course, her biggest shout is reserved for when Sungjong, on his own, whips up in the air. Woohyun leans forwarda little to get a better look at the first year's face. 

"You can say it," he prompts. Sungjong's eyes dart to his, then back to his screen. He scrolls straight past one picture that Woohyun could swear showed Howon and Sunggyu's friend with the lazy eye, arms linked for a couple shot of pink soda. Woohyun makes a mental note to check what the heck that was later on. Sungjong squeaks happily when he gets to Dasom's next video. 

"I don't know what you mean," he claims. 

"Go on," Woohyun needles, resorting to lightly poking his finger into Sungjong's side, "Get it out of your system." There's only a beat before Sungjong's studied indifference shatters into a broad, toothy grin. 

"I looked fabulous. I looked fucking fabulous. We all did great, right? Team Infinite's the best. The real fucking best! Ugh, I look great here too. I need to buy Dasommie coffee - she's the real fucking best too. Fuck..."

"Stop swearing! You're a child!" Sungyeol yells, snickering away while he crouches down to balance slices of roulade on Myungsoo's outstretched leg. Woohyun had thought Myungsoo might find this annoying. On the contrary, he seems to enjoy feeling useful, if the lazy smile resting on his annoyingly handsome face ever since they sat down is anything to go by. Having said that, the smile might also be related to how Dongwoo has been carding his fingers through Myungsoo's hair ever since they gathered as well. 

A hand wraps around Woohyun's, squeezing lightly. Woohyun peeks down at the slender, pale fingers around his stubby goblin hands. (The description came courtesy of Kibum. But Kibum also describes his neighbour - on whom he pretends not to have a crush - as having a 'big goblin head'. So Woohyun chooses not to take offence). 

"I got you something," Sunggyu murmurs into his ear. The pressure around his hand goes away and is replaced by something small, soft and plush. A pink face grimaces up at him. Mochi-peach-thingy's alive! "It was gonna be a commiseration present if we messed up. But we were awesome, so it's a regular present."

Woohyun doesn't say anything. What's he supposed to do on Saturdays now? Not lose all his money, for one. But really, what will he do? Sunggyu doesn't know what he just did. Does he not want Woohyun hanging around so much? Is that it? Probably not. He's probably only concerned about the amount of money Woohyun loses every week. Woohyun's grip tightens around the toy. His heart-rate is increasing, clanging against his ribs. 

"Crap. Did I get the wrong one? Isn't this the thing you were always trying to catch?" Sunggyu leans away to look at him better, one hand on Woohyun's back, the other pinching the sleeve of his big pink hoodie. Woohyun laughs it off breezily - not that it comes out 'breezily', more like a squeaky sort of hacking. He reassures Sunggyu that this is the guy and 'Hyung's cool for knowing'. Next, he jokes - because now that the idea is lodged in his brain, he can't will it to leave - 

"I guess I was hanging around too much. Hyung's trying to get rid of me."

Sunggyu shoves him so hard he almost falls off the bench. Hooking fingers into the neck of Woohyun's hoodie before he's about to topple over, Sunggyu forcefully drags him back and yells,

"That's not it!" At a more reasonable volume (because Myungsoo startled, causing two whole slices of roulade to fall to their demise and Sungyeol fixed them with a death-glare) he adds, "I do want you to spend less money there. Spend it on lunch. I'll punch you in the face the next time you tell me all you've eaten is bread. In the face, Woohyun-ah. Don't think I'm lying."

"Not the face, Hyung-ah. You mustn't deprive the populace." 

Sunggyu scoffs. Woohyun leans a little further into his side. He knows there's more Sunggyu wants to ask him. He's holding back because of company and because they're supposed to be celebrating, Woohyun figures. Sunggyu likes to think he's a Man of Mystery, but his face is an open book, by Woohyun's estimation - from his lips that traitorously fold into a pout when he's trying to act cool, to his stupidly expressive eyebrows, and the elegant sweep of his eyes that sometimes project promises of a slow and painful death and sometimes crinkle into breathtaking crescents. Woohyun figures they count as 'breathtaking'. They take Woohyun's breath away. _Oh hell_ , he thinks, _How long have I been in love?_

"Actually, Hyung-ah, if you swear you're not just tired of me," - he bats his eyelashes as he says this, so Sunggyu flicks him right between the eyes - "Hyung-ah, why~? But if you want to, then can we get lunch on Sunday? There was someone I wanted to see on Saturday. But she'd like to meet you, I think, and she'll be fine with pushing it back a day. That sound OK?"

Woohyun does a damn fine job of lying to himself that he's calm as he waits out the conflicting emotions tumbling around Sunggyu's head. The worried frown, the flurry of panic, the uncertain smile too shy to raise itself up, then the odd determination. 

"Alright. I can pencil you in if I put my mind to it."

Woohyun grins and wraps him in a side-hug - distantly wondering when precisely his arm ended up around Sunggyu's waist, because he's damned if he can remember putting it there. 

"You two are gross," Sungjong growls, thrusting his tiny plastic fork at them. 

"Disgusting," Sungyeol agrees, not pausing amid snapping pictures of them all and the remains of the cake and the wooden seats and basically everything he could possibly want to remember about tonight.

"-ly cute~ -ly cute~," Myungsoo coos. He gets a nice photo of YeolJong glowering at him with his DSLR and shows it to Dongwoo. The two of them chuckle and beam at the tiny display, like their team mates are the most adorable beings in their universe

Woohyun hadn't known Dongwoon would be working that Sunday. In hindsight, he ought to have checked. But hindsight's neverbeen much of a friend to him. When the three of them enter, they're greeted with, 

"Sunggyu-sunbae, you're here today. Wow, I guess you guys are at that stage already. Alright, OK. I'm envious, I think. Get your usual table and I'll bring over water and the menus."

Woohyun wants to die. He glares from behind Sunggyu's and his grandma's backs. It has about as much effect as it always does - Dongwoon winks and mouths 'fighting!'

She hasn't used his name today. However, she must recognise him on some level, because it's to him that she enquires, for the third time that day, 

"Won't you introduce me to the young man? Is he a friend of yours?"

For the third time that day, Sunggyu holds his hand out and answers for him. He tells her his name and that he's Woohyun's sunbae in school. His manner is charming. She simpers vaguely and says 'that's nice' and that it's nice to meet him. Maybe it's the repetition that's getting to Woohyun. Maybe it's not so much this comparatively easy day, as it is months of affixing smiles when inside he's devastated. And lying by omission to his parents. And using any dumb means he could to push his thoughts and feelings into a muddy swamp in the very recesses of his skull... Maybe it's more sort of that which makes Woohyun brush a fleeting kiss to Sunggyu's cheek, feeling the older boy's dimples against his lips. 

"This is the boy I like, Grandma," he announces. 

"That's nice," she says, looking like she means it for once. Although whether she's seeing him or somewhere far beyond him, Woohyun can't be sure. "I had a boy I liked. A long time ago. But he went away. Make sure he doesn't go away."

"I'll do my best," he promises. Sunggyu's leg is twitching nervously, so Woohyun squeezes his knee. The older boy stills for all of ten seconds before he starts twitching again. Nudging his shoulder playfully, Woohyun takes in the blush that dusts his friend's fine features and feels like he'll remember that forever, even when everything else slips away into nothing. That there was a boy with beautiful eyes and a wicked tongue, who blushed all the time and smiled like the stars, and that Woohyun had loved him more than he knew.


End file.
